Aspiring entrepreneurs often ask us for ideas that don’t require hundreds of thousands of dollars, euros or pounds to get started. Look no further than the burgeoning arena of t-shirts. Bearer of profiles, of lists, of any kind of self-expression really, the humble t-shirt continues to bestow riches on creative entrepreneurs, or at least guarantee some low-risk entrepreneurial fun.
So here’s yet another cool t-shirt start up: Hubwear. Its t-shirts display a wearer’s favorite travel routes, in airport codes (think JFK, AMS, MIA, HKG and so on), with the two airport codes on the front showing the outbound flight, and the return trip on the back.
All shirts, as Hubwear likes to point out, tell a story: some routes are family vacations, some are crazy work trips, and others save long distance relationships. The shirts come in three classes: Economy Class (USD 25), which lets customers mix and match routes from over 20 popular airports, Business Class (USD 30), offering travel-inspired, limited-edition graphic prints, and First Class (USD 35) for fully-customized itineraries. In December, Hubwear will introduce a line of kids t-shirts with airport codes in lowercase.
Why we think this works? As we pointed out when highlighting t-lists, yet another interesting t-shirt start up, list- and profile-mania is proliferating rapidly thanks to social websites like MySpace, Facebook, lastfm and Bebo, which are connecting likeminded individuals from around the world. (Not to mention the thousands of dating sites for those who want to be more than friends.) Refreshingly enough, this new listmania is not about keeping track of mass market hits, but about individuals: their likes, dislikes, preferences, interests and so on. What better conversation starter than one's frequent or infrequent trips across the nation or around the world?
For those of you who'd like to get on board: Hubwear is looking for partners in the travel industry (airlines and airports) and for traditional retailers who cater to the urban traveler. Or start your own ‘conversation starter on a shirt’ business! There are enough other areas ripe for some healthy self expression…It doesn’t hurt that sites like Spreadshirt and Indigo Clothing can handle most of the work for you anyway ;-)
Website: www.hubwear.com
Contact: George Aye, george@hubwear.com
Thanks for the link. We can certainly help anyone who has a good idea. Hadn't see Hubwear before - has gone on my del.icio.us!
That's so shallow. Talk about stretching an idea to its thinnest possible point.
Chris, the only thing that counts is whether other consumers like the idea, and they certainly do when it comes to Hubwear. Shallow or not, turning a conversation starter into a business is pretty entrepreneurial. And...fun. So we would actually rate this idea as one of the better ones for 2006.
I see you mentioned spreadshirt as an easy solution for placing ideas onto t-shirts. You failed to mention CafePress the market leader. Just thought I would add them in.